Dipendra Airee powers Nepal to Historic win against Scotland

The sea of travelling fans from Nepal finally had something to cheer about as their team ended their T20 World Cup campaign on a winning note. Dipendra Singh Airee was the star, with his unbeaten 50 vaulting Nepal to a 7-wicket win over Scotland in their final Group C fixture at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday (February 17). Nepal's chase for 171 runs began slowly, scoring just 26 runs in the first four overs. However, it appeared that the plan to keep wickets in hand worked. With a six, Aasif Sheikh broke free, and Kushal Bhurtel destroyed Mark Watt for 23 runs in a fifth over filled with boundaries. Nepal finished the PowerPlay with a score of 56/0, their highest PowerPlay total in all T20 World Cup games. The story took a new turn when off-spinner Michael Leask joined the fray as Bhurtel continued to pick out the fence. In the space of 4.2 overs, he caused Nepal to move from 74/0 to 98/3 by scoring three false shots on three slog sweeps. Tom Bruce caught Bhurtel well and returned at midwicket, while Aasif Sheikh's top edge found short third man. Captain Rohit Paudel miscued his shot to deep backward square leg, leaving Nepal in trouble. Before Gulsan Jha hit a straight six off Oliver Davidson, the equation came down to 65 runs off 31 balls. Against Leask specifically, Airee then completely flipped the game, beginning the 16th over with consecutive sixes and scoring 23 runs. As Scotland felt the heat, Brad Currie hit a couple of well-placed boundaries. Despite Brad Wheal's best efforts to keep things tight, Airee continued to go big, bringing the score to 15 off the final two overs. Currie's yorkers took the game to the final over but after Airee got his fifty off just 23 balls, Jha found the wide long on fence for the winning hit. George Munsey tried to cross the line by putting his body on the line, but it was in vain and also seemed to hurt him. Earlier in the evening, Scotland began positively after being asked to bat first with Michael Jones playing the aggressor's role. Even though Munsey was unusually sluggish by his standards, the right-handed opener played a lot of great shots and took the aerial route easily. Sandeep Lamichhane, a leg spinner, continued to dominate the tournament as Jones gave him a six off his first ball. He got to fifty quickly, but Munsey got a rusty 27 when he was hit by the last ball of the tenth over. As Lamichhane continued to travel, Brandon McMullen himself appeared to be in good control. There was a bemusing moment where Sundeep Jora shelled a skier but his teammates celebrated under the presumption of a catch. That was rejected by replays, but Sompal Kami got involved and beat Jones with a fantastic knuckle ball from around the wicket to get rid of him. After a few deliveries, Kami struck McMullen out with a one-handed stunner off his own bowling. The next batters had a difficult time keeping up. Following Paudel's deep collision with Lokesh Bam, which brought the game to a brief halt, Richie Berrington fell. After that, Nepal chipped away at the wickets with masterful death-bowling by Kami and Nandan Yadav, who skillfully mixed their yorkers and cutters together. Kami ended with a third, although a last-ball six from Watt took Scotland to a round total of 170. Despite the fact that it appeared at one point to be sufficient, Airee's heroism rendered the notion null and void, resulting in Nepal and Scotland completing their campaigns with a single victory each.